Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Monitor
Recommendation: NEC FP2141SB 22" CRT or Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070 22" CRTPrice: $670 shipped or $720 shipped
Since NEC and Mitsubishi are now the same company for monitors, these two are really the same superb 22" Diamondtron CRT monitors with different cosmetics. For those not familiar with Diamondtron, it is the name for Mitsubishi's single gun system that is like Sony's Trinitron. Both of these monitors have built enviable reputations for image quality and reliability, and their reputations are well-deserved. To be honest, my main system monitor is also a 22" Diamondtron CRT and it is the best performing monitor that I have ever owned.
The new generations of video cards finally justify a big monitor for high resolutions, and 22" is a great size for high resolution gaming. The NEC/Mitsubishi can deliver resolutions as high as 2048x1536 at the all important 86Hz Refresh, and refresh rates as high as 160Hz at 1024x768 and 127Hz at 1280X1024. The important thing with a 22" or 21" monitor is that you can actually see 2048x1536. The only drawback with any large CRT is the space required to house the monitor. If space is a premium, then take a closer look at our flat panel alternative.
If the $624 plus $45 shipping seems a bit steep, then there are a number of 21" monitors based on the Trinitron or Diamondtron CRT that are available in the $400 to $500 range, delivered. If it has been a while since you looked at big CRT prices, we think that you will be surprised by the lower prices that you will find today.
Alternative: Samsung 193P Flat Panel Silver
Price: $756 shipped
While there is no doubt that CRT monitors still represent the best value and best performance for gaming, things continue to improve rapidly in flat panel technology. No High End Buyer's Guide would be complete without a recommendation for a flat panel. Samsung has a sterling reputation for the performance of their flat panel displays, and Samsung's 3rd generation 19" Flat panel are finally available at on-line retailers. The price will likely fall a bit further as stock becomes more readily available and competition increases. Basically, the 193P improves on the very well-regarded 192T with even faster 20ns response times and a greater 800:1 contrast ratio. There are even faster response times available in the market, but for overall balance in a flat panel, the Samsung always seem to provide a very good mix of features and performance. The 193P also provides both DVI and standard analog inputs for flexibility and performance. You can find more details on the 193P in the AnandTech exclusive review.
The real screen difference between a 19" flat-panel and a 22" CRT is less than you might think. The viewable area of a 22" CRT is around 20", while the viewable area of a 19" LCD is a full 19". That makes the screen size only 1" larger for the 22" CRT compared to a 19" LCD. However, if you have a richer budget and want the biggest, best flat-panel monitor that you can buy, our Display Editor still recommends the Samsung 213T with a 21.3" screen and a $1200 price tag. We also recommend the big and fast 20" Dell 2001FP at $999.
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.>
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randomly - Saturday, July 31, 2004 - link
Part of what I consider essential in a high end system is a fairly Quiet machine. Especially these days with 480W supplies and the power disappation of CPUs and Video cards getting so high fan noise is getting way out of hand. After years of trying to build quiet fan cooled machines I moved to water cooling. Water cooled cases are vastly quieter than any fan based system. I've also found all my water cooled systems (CPU,GPU,Chipset) to be considerably more reliable and stable, especially when overclocked, compared to my fan based systems. I currently use Koolance PC2-601 water cooled cases as they are very quick to set up, have temperature monitoring, temperature variable fan speed, and overtemp alarms (saved me once so far). They are fairly quiet but I think there is room for improvement. Koolance uses 80mm fans on the top of the case. A system with 120mm fans buried inside the case would have a definite sound level advantage. There are also better designed and made cases than the Koolance, the trick is marrying one with a good water cooling kit. I would love to see your recomendations for cases and water cooling kits that would be appropriate for your High end / Overclocked systems. Quiet power supply recommendations that also fit the power and reliability bill would also be great to see.Water cooling used to be restricted to the home hobbiest/handyman types, but with the current kits out there from several manufacturers it has become almost as turn key as installing a motherboard, and the benefits are considerable. I think you should seriously look into it for your reviews. Once you've had a quiet PC, you'll never go back.
m4trix - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
I saw that. definately good to hear.What about the OCZ PC3700 EB? I havn't seen that anywhere. either that or I'm blind :O
the5thgeek - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
Monarch is taking preorders for about $166.http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant....
the5thgeek - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
m4trix - Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - link
I finally found the K8N Neo2 moboAnd after expecting something NEAR the "$170 shipped" price quoted in the article, I was horrified to discover it's almost $400. there goes that dream. ($389.95 before shipping).
I hope there are some WAY cheaper retailers out there in the near future...
http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?c...
expletive - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
I should have said, with the Athlon 64 3500+ and the MSI Nforce 3 board...What if i wanted to try and overclock at all?
John
expletive - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
Will this memory be a working substitute in this high end system? I would hate to waste it...https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?P...
John
phray - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
#38 Parc: I emailed MSI a week ago and i was told by Chad Long (chadl@msicomputer.com) that it would be out "late July to beginning of August in the US." Feel free to email him and see if you get any official date.I need to upgrade before Quakecon, but this board may not be out in time...
Anemone - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
Agree on the 6800U. And as I've commented on the Intel oc article you recently wrote, its quite amusing that well over a dozen sites are all recommending the FX over Intel solutions. Thanks for a great read on what to build :)Parc - Thursday, July 15, 2004 - link
I have been waiting for this board a while. Msi at first told me it would be out the last week of June or first week of July. The first week of July Msi told me it is done but I do not see it any where. Does anybody have any info on waht the deal with this board is? Where is it at and when will I be able to buy it.